Once again it is Saturday and PJ is sleeping late. As always, I question how he has convinced Siggy and Fritz to let him do so.
PJ, if you have some method that allows you to convince your dogs to allow you to sleep late ONE day a week, I would like you to share it. I’ve tried explaining to mine about Saturday, but they just don’t get it. Or, more likely, they just don’t care. Either way, they and their feline cohorts always manage to get me up and moving in the direction of the kitchen.
I’m still pinching myself, every morning, to make sure that there really is a President-elect Obama. I don’t think he is the savior that an old lefty like me envisions, but he’s not McInane, or Ghouliani or….you know, any of those crazy, myopic, fawning, egomaniacs that ran for the Rethug ticket.
I wonder if those congressional Rethugs will start insisting on investigating O’s birth certificate, or whether he’s a secret Muslim. Let’s hope that the Attorney General he picks does not have the same faulty reasoning that led Janet Reno to appoint Ken Starr and forget to put any restraints on him.
The good, if very mundane part of this Saturday, is that it is raining. That means hubby can’t work outdoors and therefore he will help me paint the ceiling that I have to do. I hate painting ceilings.
Have a good one!
This seems kind of cool. A site that the Obama administration has set up with a blog and a place to tell your story. But you can’t really see others comments. Or I haven’t figured it out yet. I like to lurk for a while before I post. I guess it would get kind of large if that was done, but still. There’s also a jobs section where you can apply for a job in the Obama administration. I bet those will be competitive.
http://change.gov/
Oh yeah, FIRST!
Yeah, Sue, it sucks to paint ceilings, fer sure! Hope you have an extension pole.
So, our suspicious friends are talking about this as something that Obama supports though we don’t hear about it in the public dialog. Similar to the North American Union maybe. My friend in Costa Rica alerted me to this yesterday and I had never heard of it. So, I googled it and came across the Ron Paul peoples’ take on it within the first 2 pages. But I didn’t really have time to delve into it so, I let it go. Today, I decided to look into it and try to figure out what it’s all about and the first thing on the google search was an article written by Stephyn Flynn who is the one who proposes the Civilian Security Force, I think. So, I went through it and snipped out what caught my eye. Then, I tried to look for the Ron Paul take on it and I couldn’t find it til the 6th page today. And really, I didn’t find anything criticizing it til the 6th page. It seemed a little weird to me that in 24 hours the Ron Paul page was pushed down so far in the Google search. I dunno, maybe I’m over analyzing again.
Here is a Ron Paul supporters version. I get the feeling that they are a little knee jerk when they hear “Federal Reserve System” and I didn’t feel like this guy explained his fear of this Civilian Security Force sufficiently.
Here is the Obama speech that the Ron Paul supporter is referencing. They say it’s about 16 minutes in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df2p6867_pw&feature=related
I dunno, what do you guys think? I recognize that there is a huge gap in security at our ports and other major infrastructure and it seems like something should be done about it. Should it be the military?? I thought that’s what the National Guard was for, dealing with isssues here at home. Oh wait, most of them are in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, things are being shifted around, I don’t know if it’s good or bad.
KP, I listened to his speech. I think he was making the standard pitch for everyone to serve the country.
Here’s Obama at a roast of Rahm Emanuel, 3 years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdphzxz64BY
I was near that location the other day but left without my contacts.
Would have been nice to meet up for :joe:
seauxP, good roast clip. Thanks.
Yeah Sue, that’s what I got from it too. I think these Ron Paul people are knee jerk paranoids. :tinfoil:
It seemed to me he was calling on people to be more community minded and asking Americans, like JFK did, to serve their country. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” That’s what I got from it. Those people tend to be knee jerk paranoid I think. I really think that Obama has a good heart, like Jimmy Carter and the only thing that may screw the good that he intends for this country and the world are the fucks who control the money and the banks and the oil and the corporations. But if all the regular folk of the world band together as humans with the same goal of peace and prosperity, maybe we can overcome the evil fucks that screw it up. There’s more of us than them and we need to cut through the nasty rhetoric of people like Rush Limpprick and Bill O’Lielly and the whole spin machine.
I think the existence of the liberal community on the internet will go a long way to help Obama and the Democrats not get out shouted by Limprick and friends. That did not exist when Clinton was president and the wingnuts were investigating Whitewater, Monica and the death of Vince Foster at the hands of Hillary.
Limpprick has been on the air in Phoenix since the late eighties. I believe he started spewing his shit in 1986. I was listening to local Phoenix talk radio back then and the station I was listening to had conservatives on in the morning and liberals on in the afternoon. When the douchbag got on the air here, the conservatives started sounding more like him and the liberals quietly went away. Believe it or not, Tom Leykus was one of those liberals and he’s been in LA talking misanthropic crap since then. So, yes all that stuff with the Clintons was shaped by jerk off’s like Rush.
Hey all! I wanted to direct you all over to the 2008 weblog awards nominations page where I have nominated Jill and Brilliant at breakfast for best blog, best liberal blog, best political blog, best blogger, best mide sized…etc…and I put myself at RIP Coco in the best undiscovered gem at the bottom. You can go into each category and scroll down to the comments and find the blogs in question and click the number afterwards to add a seconding or whatever to the nomination. You can also nominate any other blogger that youd like to. Im still working on it, but I did driftglass, who I love, and should probably do maron v seder if there is a place that it fits…maybe New Blog? or video blog, if its there?
Anyway, spread the word and lets try to get Jill some numbers! and nominate some of our other favorites…!
I remember being influenced by the whole conservative push back but I went Libertarian and made a point of voting 3rd party until 2004 when there became no room for 3rd party voting if we were to get Bush out of office. And then I had a revelatory dream with Jimmy Carter(you can hear it on Sedition Radio) when I lived in Portland and discovered my liberal self. :pup:
OMG, Trip, what a great avatar!! Im jealous!
We got on the subject of Nudie suits the other day, Melina.
zaSuP, I hope you are right about the blogosphere and the ‘tubes balancing the righty radio lie machine.
It was exciting yesterday to see a massive demonstration against the passage of Prop 8 in SF mobilized almost spontaneously by social networking sites. It caught everyone in gubmint and the media off guard and was very reminiscent of the demos that happened when Harvey Milk was assassinated.
Hey Melina! :gate: :fist:
Lest we forget, the Shrub is still the preznit:
In the first of an expected avalanche of post-election regulations, the Bush administration on Friday narrowed the scope of services that can be provided to poor people under Medicaid’s outpatient hospital benefit.
Public hospitals and state officials immediately protested the action, saying it would reduce Medicaid payments to many hospitals at a time of growing need.
The new rule conflicts with efforts by Congressional leaders and governors to increase federal aid to the states for Medicaid as part of a new economic action plan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/washington/08regs.html?
Also, I worry about a 9/11 type disaster after Obama takes office. Whoever you think was behind 9/11, this administration ignored the warnings on purpose and those same people may be cooking something up to make Obama’s presidency more difficult. I’m sure that he will be more vigilant and actually do something about whatever warnings he may get, but still……..
Okay, I had an argument with my argumentative friend a few days ago about Obama having a landslide victory and he denied it. So, I need the technical definition of landslide, like, is there a specific number that is officially a landslide. The dictionary just says “overwhelming majority” but, that won’t be enough for Mister Burke. If anyone knows a specific number in terms of elections I would be most appreciative. I’m going to his birthday party tonight and I need ammunition. Thanks! :pirate:
I don’t think it was a landslide, though, but it was a majority, not a plurality.
I’m unsure what the precise definition of an overwhelming majority is, I guess is what I mean. I’ve heard over fifty-five percent, which doesn’t seem right to me.
A landslide seems to be in the eyes of the beholder. Obama’s electoral college numbers are better than double that of McCain. I think that would be a fair definition of a landslide. He won the popular vote by a little better than 6%. While that’s a very respectable margin it may or may not be a landslide.
Since the Rethugs are good at defining anything to suit them (i.e. Obama’s tax plan is socialism) I’d stick to my guns and swear every MS blogger agrees.
http://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?action=printpage;topic=86425.0
It was an electoral landslide. I don’t think there’s a firm number to determine a landslide, but Obama more than doubled the number of electoral votes that McCain got (even giving McCain MO, the final tally would be 365 – 174). Obama also won 30 of 51 states (counting DC as a state). Obama also won by about 6% of the vote.
These numbers are nowhere near what Reagan got over Mondale (525 electoral votes – the most ever, I believe – and winning the popular vote by about 18%, and every state except MN). Also, Nixon got 520 electoral votes against McGovern, and won the popular vote by over 23% en route to winning every state except MA and DC.
Reagan also stomped Carter: 489 – 49, 9.7% of the popular vote.
The largest popular vote victory was FDR over Alf Landon, by 24.3% (523 – 8 EV).
Well, in any case it seems to be a clear mandate. Obviously, landslide needs to be defined so that it’s not abused, but then, maybe it was an abused term from the start. :cat:
Any description beyond majority would be gloating I think and that won’t help build bipartisan consensus in the short run.
If the preznit got a mandate and collateral with 286 ev in 2004 I think we can call the Obama/McCain contest a blowout.
ding ding ding Trav found me! I decided to celebrate that I’m as far away from Georgia as I could get and still be in the lower 48. :banana:
The people who are denying that this election was a landslide for Obama are the same people who…
a) declared that Bush had a mandate when he was appointed to the presidency by his dad’s buds on the Supreme Court,
b) agreed with Bush that he had “political capital” after the Repigs stole Ohio to defeat Kerry, and
c) are now claiming that America is a conservative nation.
Bullshit on all counts.
Obama’s electoral total, as previously noted, is more than twice McCain’s. Just the number of states that Obama flipped from red to blue would qualify this election as a landslide, IMHO.
Not to mention that by flipping VA, NC and FL and performing as well as he did in the Midwest and Rockies, Obama obliterated the Southern Strategy and tore the Repigs asunder.
Smells like a landslide to me!
Any description beyond majority would be gloating I think and that won’t help build bipartisan consensus in the short run.
Comment by Travis — November 8, 2008 @ 6:32 pm
True, but they’ve had eight years to gloat. We should be able to at least take a week. 😀
Hi Melina! :love:
I voted for Jill for best blog and best blogger, as well as RIPCoco for undiscovered. I also added a nomination for MVS in the video blog category, but the nomination most likely won’t show up for 24 hours.
Everyone else should vote if you haven’t already. The site is easily negotiable, and you can get there through the link Melina posted upthread.
I’m having a real problem with the idea of bailing out the auto industry. Yes, we need to keep manufacturing going, but a bailout without severely cutting the pay of the executive and management teams seems unjust.
Ford, for example, continued building trucks trucks and more trucks and none of the American auto makers pursued green cars with fervor. The SUV’s were huge profit margins. The environment and oil independence be damned. We may need to bail them out to keep labor going, but the thought of rewarding stupidity, short-sidedness, greed, and mediocrity gets in my craw.
This vegetarian is off to buy meat for the girls. :pup:
2004
President George W. Two Terms Mandate Bush (Incumbent)
51%
62,040,606
EV 286
Kerry
48%
59,028,109
EV 252
Nadir
1%
411,304
EV 0
President-Elect Barack Obama
53%
65,378,128
EV 364
McCain
46%
57,381,014
EV 162
Bush claimed a mandate with those numbers (most votes ever for a Presidential candidate, blah, blah, blah) yet he was the incumbent.
O’Bama won by 8 million vote vs. Bush’s 3 million.
Don’t forget Ohio, Kev!
BTW, Obama has 365 EVs (he got one of Nebraska’s – they split theirs, like Maine – first time ever for a Democrat, I think).
Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse the president on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/08/AR2008110801856.html?nav=rss_email/components
President-elect Obama is doing pretty well, so far.
Old white guys’ worst nightmare – a black guy with a brain in charge of ‘their’ government.
Re: 36
I LOVE it! :nana:
Moving is so much fun. I should do it every month.
Ha! Try moving in July in Arizona. That’s when I always seem to move. :hot:
DON’T FORGET POLAND!
:fist:
Actually, don’t forget the state of Indiana.
KP, here’s our local headline:
Frank Rich is a jewell:
our local police blotter is usually very entertaining, but this letter to the editor caught my eye:
hmmm, i don’t see a sea kitten emoticon. :tap:
A #44 post in honor of the President-elect!
fish kittens fish kittens roly poly fish kittens!! you’re great, Vern.
If Willie McCovey had a godson, would his # be 45?
:rofl2:
i’m going to throw mr fk’s blog in the mix that melina mentioned. can’t hurt…..